[Blog Post] The State of Storm after #GPDC

[Jonathan Alexander]

This week, I'm going through all the 13-2 or better decks at GP DC and see what they bring to the table to interact with Storm, concluding in an updated decklist:

The State of Storm after #GPDC

[BeardTron]

Really well thought out. I'm brand new to Legacy and Storm, so this kind of article is gold to me.

List is interesting. Pretty different numbers than stock lists I've been testing with. Would love to hear what some experienced storm players think about your decisions.

Thanks for your hard work.

[Lemnear]

I can't get the idea behind the second PIF as it's flashback already doubelst it's use and you want to gain access to both, PIF and ToA/EtW during your combo-turn which is only possible via Tutors and not via additional engine cards. I'm confused that you did Identity the variable hate as the reason for Storms current problems, but still choose to cut down disruption/protection and moreover run narrow ones like Duress too. You first mention the hatebears that come out of Sideboards but still run discard that is unable to grab Thalia or Cannonist? It's not that you ran Grim Tutor in addition so that the lifeloss would be an issue at some point.

[davelin]

Storm is an underdog to Dredge? I personally don't find that to be the case.

[Jonathan Alexander]

I can't get the idea behind the second PIF as it's flashback already doubelst it's use and you want to gain access to both, PIF and ToA/EtW during your combo-turn which is only possible via Tutors and not via additional engine cards. I'm confused that you did Identity the variable hate as the reason for Storms current problems, but still choose to cut down disruption/protection and moreover run narrow ones like Duress too. You first mention the hatebears that come out of Sideboards but still run discard that is unable to grab Thalia or Cannonist? It's not that you ran Grim Tutor in addition so that the lifeloss would be an issue at some point.

The reasoning for the second Past in Flames is speed. The Tutor-less Past in Flames kills come up quite frequently with multiple Storm spells in the deck. Further, the line where you discard Past in Flames to an LED gives you +2 Storm and the odds of that happening increase as well. I stated at the end of the article that the second Past in Flames is one of the questionable slots, and while that's still true, I'd rather have it than not, at least for now.
Seeing as I'm always boarding out Duress against decks with hatebears, I don't see the issue of running it. It's only rarely a factor, whereas Thoughtseize's downside is very relevant against the Delver decks and sometimes also in the combo mirror. Also, the way you use your life total as a resource differs slightly from other storm decks; you don't need it for your engines (well, except for Gitaxian Probe), but rather to have more draw steps, at least in the matches where you can play defensively. Usually, when you're playing the Past in Flames / multi Tendrils game, you're the control deck, while with Ad Nauseam, you are the beatdown; if that helps clarify this.
That being said, swapping the Duress for another Thoughtseize is still understandable.

As far as Dredge goes, I never liked the matchup. Especially the lists with Dread Return are very hard to beat if they know what they're doing. The problem is that your discard doesn't really work against them.

[nevilshute]

Hey Jona,

Really nice and interesting read :) I have a few quesitons/comments:

I notice you are siding out 1x LED in some matchups. Can you expand on this choice? To me it seems very wrong as I'd much rather miss out on another probe or discard piece depending on what I'm siding in/out.

I'd also like chime in on the Dredge matchup. First of all I agree that it's not a very good matchup for us. It's particularily their therapies that can tear us apart usually already on their turn 2. I think running a main deck Empty the Warrens improves this matchup as we get a way to interact with their bridges.

[bjholmes3]

There's discussion about dropping one LED post-board in the ANT thread; one of the main factors is that LED conflicts with the increasing quantities of businiess spells certain builds like to bring in post-board.

[Jonathan Alexander]

The reasoning for boarding out one Tutor and LED each is that they tend to put you in a position where you have to care about your opponent's countermagic, which is the opposite of what we're trying to accomplish by having multiple Storm spells in our deck.